I have to say I am having a TON of fun on the floor of LightFair 2010 – this is a conference I will be attending each year! I walked around yesterday on the floor, meeting people, getting hugs from people, and generally having an excellent time. One thing that I am super excited about is that I HAVE A REAL PHOTOGRAPHER shooting work for JimOnLight.com! Everybody’s favorite Amanda Lynne Ballard is here, shooting pics and making me look GREAT! You have to see some of the work she got for you all, and make sure to thank her.

Check out some photos of the showfloor – if you’ve not been to LightFair, you need to make plans! This is a huge year for LightFair, most people ever!

“The Map”

WANT. NOW.

Part of Cree LED’s booth – AWESOME!

Peter Kirkup showing how he nerds his iPad into controlling the Orb. Awesome.

I love me some Peter Kirkup! This kid is a GENIUS!

I also loves me some Ginny Skalski from Cree – she’s the Social Media voice of Cree LEDs! What a rock star!

Green Man Walking

The biggest CFL I have ever seen. Ever.

That’s right – OptiLEDs immersed in water. How’s that for IP 68?

SeaChanger – in all if its greatness!

More OptiLED submersion

Finally – someone acknowledged Street Lighting!

Stay tuned – I’m here all week! Lots more stuff to come. I am very excited!

Cree, Inc – one of the major LED players in the industry, released a few weeks ago an LED with an IPx5 rating. This means the LED is perfect for outdoor displays and situations where the LED is going to come into direct contact with water. Typically, LED displays are made with respect to water-tightness as to not cause the display to fail, but Cree has incorporated this protection into the LED itself. From the press release:

DURHAM, N.C., JUNE 17, 2009 — Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE), a market leader in LED lighting, announces the first commercially available water-resistant, surface-mount, high-brightness LEDs for outdoor video screens. This RGB (red-green-blue) LED has an IPx5 rating, indicating that the LED is protected against low-pressure jets of water from all directions.

“We’ve developed a water-resistant, red-green-blue LED that can be used in indoor and outdoor video screen applications,” said Paul Thieken, Cree director of marketing, LED components. “Previously, LEDs had to be encapsulated to protect them from water. By incorporating encapsulation at the LED level, we can help our customers save time and money.”

“Displ’aire, working with Cree, is changing the rules for LED displays,” says Leo Stearns, Displ’aire’s CEO. “Cree’s involvement started with us early in our development cycle, and they provided the support we needed to rapidly deploy our new technologies. Displ’aire portable, daylight-visible displays and the new water-resistant Cree LEDs are a perfect technology match for creating brighter, more efficient displays that can better stand up to the elements.”

The ScreenMaster® CLV6A-FKB features a black face for improved contrast in full-color video screens, decorative lighting and amusement applications. It has a unique encapsulation resin with UV-inhibitors, minimizing the effects of long-term exposure to direct sunlight which helps to improve the stability of the light-output over the life of the LED. It also features a unique matched horizontal radiation pattern—enhancing color mixing and pixel-to-pixel color consistency.

The CLV6A-FKB is commercially available now, and samples can be requested through a Cree representative.